Tips for Finding Volunteers

Start the process by identifying potential volunteers already in contact with your organization. Reach out to your supporters, their friends and family, your current volunteers, and staff. Make sure you touch base with alumni of your program, and the people in your organizations’ neighborhood. It’s also very important to maintain communication with others who have been affected by the cause for which you’re raising money. When you contact these individuals, make sure you have a compelling message that’s simple and focused. And, be sure to directly ask for what you need…Volunteers!

To take your search to the next level, try one of the incredible software programs created specifically for non-profit organizations. VolunteerHub, for example, provides a leading volunteer software for non-profits and other organizations. Instead of trying to manage all the volunteers you’ve recruited on your own, you can let VolunteerHub’s cloud-based approach to volunteer management give you more time and flexibility to focus on other aspects of your event. Visit VolunteerHub online to learn more at http://www.volunteerhub.com.

How Volunteers Can Help During Your Event

Volunteers can do far more than just help setup your charity auction fundraiser. Volunteers can help set the mood of your event, too. If you’re looking for a more polished atmosphere, ask that your volunteers come dressed professionally. This can add a whole new aspect to your event and raise the bar to make it look more professional. If you’re going for a more laidback feel at your event, arrange a color or common theme for your volunteers to wear; this way they’re easily definable and easy to locate for help and questions that may arise.

Volunteers can help heighten energy, organize your materials, keep an eye on important or valuable items and maintain order throughout the event. It’s important to always keep an eye on bid sheets, so this is another way to utilize your volunteers. Also, listening to the crowd and responding to what’s going over well (or not so well) is imperative and a great use of your help. And, don’t forget, volunteers can help you find a very important resource: more volunteers!

How Volunteers Can Help After Your Event

Breaking down your charity auction and carefully packing up auction items is critical at the end of an event. This is a great time to utilize your volunteers to help repack items that need to be returned and to make sure money was exchanged where necessary. The end of an event can be a hectic time, so it’s great to have extra hands available to double check items and bid sheets to make certain everything is in order.

Encourage your volunteers to blog about your event, or to post about its success on their various social networks, to help raise awareness for your next event. Lastly, distribute thank you letters to your volunteers to send out to your bidders, as well as the individuals who attended the event to thank them for their participation.

Give these ideas a shot to boost your volunteer count, and we’re sure you’ll be impressed by the increase in numbers and efficiency. Lastly, be sure to utilize your social media networks to blog about your event’s success. Check out and add A. S. Charity Fundraising to your circles on Google+, follow us on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook to get some more great ideas!

By LisaMarie Ianuzzi, Charity Fundraising Assistant

Over the past two days we’ve witnessed the tremendous power of social media for charity fundraising with the KONY 2012 campaign. Three young filmmakers who traveled to Africa in 2003 in search of a story created the video. What started out as an adventure became serious as the trio stumbled upon Africa’s longest-running war, involving Joseph Kony, a brutal killer who along with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) abducted more than 30,000 children in northern Uganda, forcing them to murder their families — the boys becoming child soldiers and the girls sex slaves.

Through the use of social media and exceptional videography, the not-profit group Invisible Children launched their KONY 2012 video and went viral with over 38 million views in just two days. This video has touched many and shed light on a critical issue in Africa. It also shows the power that we, human beings, have to create change where we want it and to forge strength in numbers by utilizing our everyday social media tools. There are more people on Facebook than there were on the planet 200 years ago. By means of our social networks, we have our own platform to voice our opinions and to connect with others on a grand scale.

KONY 2012 is an important movement because it’s not just about the group Invisible Children, but about every group trying to make their message heard. It gives us hope that, with everyone’s effort and by pulling together, we can change a lot more than just Uganda and the LRA, but that we can create the momentum and encourage others to support all these important causes. We all hold in our hands and at our fingertips the power for change. Not only has social media changed the way we communicate and learn, but now it has changed how we take action.

The team at Autograph Store Charity Fundraising would like to encourage you to watch and share this video on your own social networks. Take control and help make a change.

By LisaMarie Ianuzzi, Charity Fundraising Assistant

NEW YORK, N.Y., February 28, 2012 — The fundraising and development teams at Autograph Store Charity Fundraising and the ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI) are pleased to announce their national partnership for charity auctions hosted throughout 2012. After a careful vetting process, ALS TDI selected Autograph Store Charity Fundraising as their exclusive, preferred source for unique auction items and experience packages.

Citing Autograph Store Charity Fundraising’s international reach and five-plus years of experience providing successful fundraising ideas to some of the world’s most recognizable charity organizations, ALS TDI selected a partner with the know-how to support its more than 100 auction fundraisers planned throughout North America in 2012.

“We couldn’t be more excited about this partnership,” said Sean Gallagher, director of operations for Autograph Store Charity Fundraising. “The work ALS TDI does for so many patients who desperately need their support is something we’re proud to be a part of. Having the opportunity to support their auction events this year will be a great honor and a lot of fun for our fundraising team.”

ALS TDI has a number of high profile projects in their pipeline for 2012, including the launch of a clinical trial for ALS patients as well as preclinical research into another potential treatment today through its research agreement with Biogen Idec and UCB. Additionally, the institute is expanding its lab by more than 40 percent this year to take even more of a leadership role to drive this and other important potential treatments for ALS patients today forward.

“The pace of our research is directly proportional to the funding we receive,” said Steve Perrin, Ph.D., CEO & Chief Scientific Officer of ALS TDI. “Funding from auctions accelerate that process. ALS TDI is excited to work with the Autograph Store Charity Fundraising group to help us increase funding and move faster toward effective treatments for ALS patients today.”

Autograph Store Charity Fundraising spent the past several months capitalizing on its record-breaking 2011, expanding the company’s offering beyond autographed memorabilia to include once-in-a-lifetime experience packages, artwork, jewelry and many other unique auction items in 2012. Significant investments in infrastructure and enhanced product and package offerings, have allowed the company to continue its aggressive growth into offering more comprehensive fundraising ideas and non-profit support, like what will be available to ALS TDI.

“We’ve been investing in our brand, our internal systems, and our product and package offerings for exactly this reason — we want to be able to provide more comprehensive auction support to national non-profit organizations like ALS TDI,” Gallagher said. “Partnering with organizations like ALS TDI is why we’re in the charity fundraising business, and we couldn’t be more pleased to help support such a wonderful cause.”

For more information regarding this story, please contact LisaMarie Ianuzzi, charity fundraising assistant for Autograph Store Charity Fundraising, at (888) 232-2500, ext. 100 or lisamariei@autographstore.com.

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Autograph Store Charity Fundraising proudly serves more than 2,500 charities and non-profits worldwide, providing charity auction items to a wonderfully diverse group of worthy causes. In fact, in 2011 alone, the company’s no-risk auction items helped raise nearly $3 million at charity auctions, non-profit fundraisers and charity benefits in all 50 states and around the world. For more information, please visit http://www.www.ascharityfundraising.com.

The mission of the ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI) is to develop effective therapeutics that slow or stop amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease) as soon as possible for patients today. Focused on meeting this urgent unmet medical need, ALS TDI executes a robust target discovery program, while simultaneously operating the world’s largest efforts to preclinically validate potential therapeutics; including a pipeline of dozens of small molecules, protein biologics, gene therapies and cell-based constructs. The world’s first nonprofit biotech institute, ALS TDI has developed an industrial-scale platform, employs 30 professional scientists and evaluates dozens of potential therapeutics each year. Built by and for patients, the Cambridge, Massachusetts based research institute collaborates with leaders in both academia and industry to accelerate ALS therapeutic development, including Biogen Idec, UCB, Aestus Therapeutics, MDA and RGK Foundation. For more information, please visit us online at http://www.als.net.

© 2012 Autograph Store Charity Fundraising

It’s that time of year again — Oscar Trivia Time! Last year we held our inaugural Oscar Trivia Contest for our Facebook fans, and we’re doing it again this year. Our phones rang off the hook all that week from contestants calling in to see when our next trivia question would be posted and what the daily prize would be. Well, this blog will give you a sneak peak of this year’s prizes and could possibly provide a helpful hint or two for your trivia success!

Every day next week from February 20 through February 24 we’ll post one tough trivia question. (For those of you on the West Coast, don’t worry we’ll wait until you’re up! The trivia questions posted every day may or may not have to do with the fundraising item being given away, but it will be helpful to brush up on a few facts about them.

Here’s just a taste of what we are giving away…

One item features the autograph of a prominent American actress and director noted for promoting humanitarian causes. She has three adopted children and three biological children with one of the hottest actors around.

Another item is autographed by an actor who was raised in England, Portugal and California and was the seventh actor to play Batman (aka: Bruce Wayne) in a live-action film.

A well-known actor who formerly held the World Record for Most Weight Gained for a Movie autographed another piece up for grabs. He gained over 60 pounds for this role!

That’s just a taste of the fundraising items we’re giving away next week, but you have to be a fan of Autograph Store Charity Fundraising on Facebook to participate in next week’s Trivia Contest. Remember to check frequently throughout each day for our daily trivia question to pop up, and make sure you’re the first to answer correctly. And, don’t forget to share this blog on Facebook, Twitter and Google+, so you can play against your friends and they can get in on the action! Good luck next week!

By LisaMarie Ianuzzi, Charity Fundraising Assistant

Google+

Despite the initial buzz and anticipation that’s built up around Google+, it appears this network will still take some time before it comes anywhere near overthrowing the more well-established networks, like Facebook and Twitter. But remember, Google is a powerhouse on the Web, so now’s a perfect time to get your organization started with an entity page. Cool, new features from Google+, like video hangouts and “circles” won’t fly under the radar for long. Since it’s synced up with Google Calendar, Google Docs, and other unique Google-operated programs, Google+ may prove to be a very effective and useful outlet in due time.

Twitter

If you’re trying to spread the word about your upcoming charity auction, what more could you ask for than real-time updates? Twitter constantly features live streaming updates to let the entire world know exactly where you are, what you’re doing, what you’re thinking, and so on. A great way to get the buzz going around the community is to promote your event on Twitter through daily posts highlighting all of the great fundraising ideas you’ve incorporated into your event. This will be sure to engage your potential attendees, as well as boost attendance and anticipation as the date draws closer.

Facebook

Last, but certainly not least… Over 500 million users are on Facebook every day, which means this is your ultimate opportunity to promote your organization’s next major charity auction. By creating Facebook groups, events, and fan pages for your organization, you can easily draw attention toward any upcoming events you have planned. Facebook is constantly striving to create the ultimate social networking platform, and there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t use it to help your event reach it’s maximum potential.

We hope these helpful hints on implementing social media into your event promotion plan prove useful. Utilize these unique (and free!) resources to get the most out of your latest and greatest fundraising ideas, and don’t forget to add Autograph Store Charity Fundraising to your circles on Google+, follow us on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook!

By Devin Noonan, Social Media Coordinator

We may not have been as busy as Santa and his elves, but we’ve been working around the clock the past few months to ensure we can help spread hope and happiness throughout the holiday season. Our charity auction experts have been assisting charities around the globe help bring some incredible auction items to their biggest supporters. Even Santa can’t get his hands on some of the unique fundraising items our charity partners can!

Whether you’ve been the lucky recipient of one of our unique auction items, one of our valued charity partners, or just one of our devoted followers, we’d like to take this time to send our warmest wishes to you and your family this holiday season. We hope you can help join us in spreading the holiday spirit to those in need.

By Devin Noonan, Social Media Coordinator

SpineHope was founded in 2008 in an effort to combat spinal disorders through an increase in education and awareness, expansion of research, and transformational surgeries for children in need. Since their founding, SpineHope has helped assess hundreds of patients with spinal disorders, providing many with critical surgery and a better way of living.

This past year they held their Inaugural Fundraising Event in Chicago, which treated family, friends and supporters to a night full of live entertainment and fun. Our fundraising specialist Heller Pool was thrilled to help kick start SpineHope’s first major event with some incredible fundraising items.

“I absolutely loved Heller,” said Beth Felker, event coordinator for SpineHope. “She was clear, upbeat, enthusiastic, and most importantly, she helped us meet all of our deadlines. I would love to use Autograph Store Charity Fundraising again.”

Some of the popular items at SpineHope’s inaugural event included items autographed by music icons Billy Joel, Bob Seger, and Pearl Jam. With the combined efforts of SpineHope, donors, and Autograph Store Charity Fundraising, their first-ever fundraising event brought in over $40,000. For Felker and company, this was a large accomplishment that far exceeded her expectations, but that wasn’t even the best part.

“The most important goal for us was to raise visibility and support for our cause while thanking all of our loyal supporters,” Felker said. “All of the money that we raised from our charity auction was simply a bonus.”

The amazing doctors and their medical team volunteers at SpineHope just completed a trip earlier in November, where they provided children in need with life-changing surgery. They’re now eagerly awaiting their next big trip this December, where they’ll embark on a mission to help provide individuals in need with life-changing surgery. To find out how you can help support this great cause, visit SpineHope online at http://www.spinehope.org.

By Devin Noonan, Social Media Coordinator

A far cry from our time in school when the letter “F” brought on feelings of dread, Thanksgiving is a time to cherish the letter, focusing on the importance of friends, family, food, and for some of us, football. This year, we ask you to remember another “F” as well, fundraising. Day in and day out we help our charity partners with their efforts to raise money and awareness for great causes around the world. In a hope to inspire and fuel some charitable gestures on this day of giving, we ask that each end every person perform just one act of good faith. Whether you invite a lonesome friend over for Thanksgiving Dinner, offer some free time to a local soup kitchen, or simply donate a few dollars online, we simply ask that you help keep the spirit of giving alive. After all, isn’t that what Thanksgiving is really about?

We have a lot to be thankful for here at Autograph Store Charity Fundraising, and we’d like to take the time to specifically thank our dedicated friends and charity partners who continue to work tirelessly to make this world a better place. From all of us here at Autograph Store Charity Fundraising, we hope you have a safe and happy Thanksgiving surrounded by good food, great friends and a loving family. And don’t forget the newest “F” during this wonderful season of giving!

By Devin Noonan, Social Media Coordinator

Today’s video blog serves up a very special treat from our hardworking charity fundraising interns, Britney Sachs, Bryttnee Parris and Brittany Nardolillo (our three Britneys!). Our cameras left the safety of the Autograph Store offices and hit the mean streets of The Big Apple to record what your donors had to say about why they support the charities they do. What do you think about what they had to say? Leave your comments here, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and become our fan on Facebook!

Produced by Brittany Nardolillo, Charity Fundraising Intern

We’re talking about vending machines. That’s right, you heard right — vending machines. The same machines that deliver you your favorite candy bars and sugary beverages now provide hungry and thirsty consumers around the world the opportunity to make charitable donations while consuming. First introduced in Japan, this fundraising idea has made its way overseas to Brazil, and is expected to make an impact in major cities all over the world soon.

More than 10 million people commute via public transportation each and every day in New York City. Imagine what might happen if just 1-percent of those commuters donated a single dollar each day. In just one day, $100,000 would be raised, without anyone having to go out of his or her way.

That’s exactly what happened in Japan when a local Coca-Cola bottling company teamed up with the Japanese Red Cross to encourage post-tsunami support. Consumers were provided the opportunity to offer a charitable contribution to the Japanese Red Cross, along with or instead of their beverage purchase, earning them a thank you from an automated system upon completing their transactions. And, if that wasn’t enough, the Coca-Cola Company also donated a percentage of its beverage sales directly to the Japanese Red Cross, further supporting the program.

In São Paulo, Brazil, the city’s public transportation systems have also become accustomed to this innovative, new fundraising idea. Vending machines in their subway system now include simple thank you cards, which are earned by making charitable donations that help keep local children off the streets.

With such a large market that relies on public transportation in major cities across North America and Europe, it’s only a matter of time before this groundbreaking fundraising idea reaches its full potential here in the U.S. and beyond. For many major nonprofits out there, this may be the first of many alternative fundraising techniques that arise from ongoing technological advancements.

By Devin Noonan, Social Media Coordinator